Texas Blockchain Council endorses Ted Cruz for US Senate

(Coin Telegraph)-14/08/2024

The cryptocurrency and blockchain advocacy organization Texas Blockchain Council (TBC) announced it endorsed incumbent Ted Cruz for reelection in the United States Senate.

In an Aug. 12 X post, president Lee Bratcher said the TBC would endorse the junior senator as Cruz addressed a crowd at a Core Scientific mining facility in Denton, Texas. Bratcher hinted the Texas senator was knowledgeable about “Bitcoin as a tool for ensuring freedom and mining as a tool for grid stability.” In an X post at the event, Cruz said, “Crypto is the future.”

Cruz, who has served in the US Senate since 2013, has previously spoken at TBC events, including the North American Blockchain Summit — formerly the Texas Blockchain Summit — about Bitcoin mining in the Lone Star State and the benefits mining facilities could have on the state’s energy grid. Coinbase’s Stand With Crypto political initiative rated the Texas senator as “strongly” supportive of crypto based on his congressional voting record and tweets invoking digital assets.

“I like Bitcoin because the government can’t control it,” said Cruz in 2022.

Cruz, a Republican, will run against Democrat Colin Allred, Libertarian Ted Brown and Democratic write-in candidate Tracy Andrus in November. As of July 18, an ActiVote poll showed Cruz with an eight-point lead against Allred. 

The political landscape in Texas may have changed after US President Joe Biden announced he would not run for reelection. Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for US president in 2024. Polls have suggested that Harris may be leading Republican nominee Donald Trump in many battleground states.

As one of the largest state economies in the US, Texas is home to several crypto-mining companies, including Riot Platforms and Core Scientific. In February, lawyers representing the TBC pushed back against federal government requests for data collection from miners.